In truth, the strategic Israel-Russia coordination of Israeli bombings in Syria served Russian interests: Israel declared that it would continue the bombings no matter what, and an Israel-Russia military escalation could only draw the United States into the melee and expose Russia as a mere regional power that was no match for the United States.

Russia’s true face has been revealed not only in the military/strategic sphere — by providing S-300s to Syria — but also by its reversion to the old Russian/Soviet antisemitism that not even Russian President Putin’s “special relationship” with Chabad can camouflage.

Following the September 18, 2018 downing of an Ilyushin-20 plane by Syrian missiles, Russia’s mask dropped, and the true anti-Israel face of its policy was fully revealed. Indeed, Putin first attempted to conceal it by refraining from fully blaming Israel for the tragedy. But soon enough, he joined his subordinates in accusing Israel, and announced that Russia would equip Syria with S-300 missile systems, which would, inter alia, protect Iranian forces in Syria from Israeli attacks.

Now the picture is crystal-clear: The Russians, who originally enabled and sponsored the Iranian expansion in Syria as an anti-US measure, will now also protect the Iranians in Syria from Israeli attacks. This constitutes an undeclared act of war against Israel by an enemy, i.e., Russia — since it will not be the Syrians operating the S-300s against Israeli aircraft, because they yet face a long learning curve to do this; it will, for an indeterminate time, be Russian officers.

But with its transfer to Syria of the S-300s and their inevitable operation by Russian officers against Israeli aircraft, the Russians risk a major military and technological debacle. They will learn, if they haven’t yet from the Ilyushin tragedy, that Israeli-American technology is far superior to Russia’s — and that goes not just for the S-300s now being shipped to the Syrians, but also for the S-300s and S-400s that Russia already has in place in Syria for its own defense. Perhaps only an internal Russian military investigation can show what these systems were doing when the Ilyushin was shot down. (...)

Russia’s true face has been revealed not only in the military/strategic sphere — by providing S-300s to Syria — but also by its reversion to the old Russian/Soviet antisemitism that not even Russian President Putin’s “special relationship” with Chabad can camouflage. Former Israeli Ambassador to Russia Zvi Magen noted: “The media blamed Israel on the day of crisis in a well-timed orchestrated manner, filled with antisemitic elements. This wasn’t random.” Given Russia’s actual policy towards Israel, this should come as no surprise.